Money Line Parlay: How Did the Kavanaughs Afford Their $1,225,000 Home?

On 27 February 2006, at the height of the real estate bubble, Brett and Ashley Kavanaugh purchased a home in the village of Chevy Chase, Maryland, a tony suburb of Washington. The house, a handsome four-bedroom built in 1922, had a purchase price of $1,225,000 — half a million dollars more than the sellers had paid just six years earlier. As Steve Reilly has revealed, the initial mortgage on the property was for $980,000:

Montgomery County Circuit Court Land Records from 2006. Image courtesy S...